The UK robotics sector is growing fast. The industrial robotics market hit $903 million in 2024 and is forecast to reach $1.75 billion by 2030. The government has committed £4.3 billion to advanced manufacturing over five years, including £40 million for a new network of Robotics Adoption Hubs launching in late 2026. Defence spending is rising to 2.6% of GDP by 2027, with £400 million ring-fenced for defence innovation including autonomous systems.
Meanwhile, 63% of UK manufacturers are planning capital investments in robotics, and robotics salaries rose 12% in the past year. Companies are hiring, and struggling to fill roles.
Here are the robotics and autonomous systems companies in the Hard Tech UK directory with open roles right now.
Autonomous Vehicles
Wayve: 12 open roles
Wayve is pioneering an AI-first approach to self-driving. Rather than relying on detailed 3D maps and hand-coded rules, their system uses end-to-end deep learning. The AI driver learns directly from camera data and real-world driving experience. The company raised a $1.2 billion Series D in early 2026, valuing it at $8.6 billion, and has partnerships with major automakers and logistics firms to bring the technology to production vehicles.
Their London team is hiring heavily across ML engineering and systems software. Current roles include Staff Machine Learning Engineers (autonomy and inference optimisation), Engineering Managers across GPU kernels, robot software, and OS/kernel teams, and Tech Leads in ML edge deployment and full-stack onboard experience.
- Location: London
- Stage: Series D
- Backed by: SoftBank, Eclipse, NVIDIA, Microsoft, Uber
- Total raised: ~$2.5 billion
Humanoid Robotics
Humanoid: 5 open roles
Humanoid is building commercially scalable humanoid robots for industrial automation. Their HMND 01 platform has 29 active degrees of freedom and AI-driven end-to-end reasoning, targeting warehouses, logistics hubs, and retail facilities through a robotics-as-a-service model. A trial at the Siemens Electronics Factory in Erlangen achieved 60 tote moves per hour with over 90% autonomous success rate. The team of 200+ includes alumni from Apple, Tesla, and Boston Dynamics.
They're hiring a Manipulation Capabilities Engineer, Staff Control Software Engineer, Robotics Technician, Robotics Fleet Manager, and AI Data Collector, all in London.
- Location: London
- Backed by: Preparing for Series A
Defence Robotics & Autonomous Systems
The UK's defence tech sector is a major driver of robotics hiring, with several companies building autonomous drones, ground vehicles, maritime systems, and the software platforms that connect them.
Anduril: 17 open roles
Anduril builds autonomous systems and AI-powered platforms for national security. Its Lattice OS uses sensor fusion, computer vision, and machine learning to connect autonomous hardware across air, land, sea, and space. The portfolio includes autonomous drones (Ghost, Fury, Roadrunner), counter-UAS systems, and the Ghost Shark autonomous submarine. Revenue doubled to roughly $1 billion in 2024.
Their London office is hiring across software engineering (modelling & simulation, visual simulation, mission software, SRE), electrical engineering, DevOps, cloud infrastructure, programme management, and deployment operations.
- Location: London
- Stage: Series G
- Total raised: $6.3 billion
Helsing: 7 open roles
Helsing builds AI-powered software and autonomous systems for military applications across air, land, sea, space, and cyber. Since its 2021 founding, it has become one of Europe's most valuable defence tech startups, valued at €12 billion following a €600 million Series D. Helsing has delivered thousands of strike drones to Ukraine, acquired aircraft manufacturer Grob Aircraft, and unveiled the CA-1 Europa autonomous combat aerial vehicle.
UK roles span AI Research Engineers across multiple specialisations (computer vision, reinforcement learning, robotics and control, AI safety) in London, plus hardware roles in Plymouth including an Analog/Digital R&D Electronic Engineer and CNC Specialist.
- Location: London, Plymouth
- Stage: Series D
- Backed by: Lightspeed, Accel, General Catalyst, Prima Materia, SAAB
- Total raised: €1.37 billion
Arondite: 2 open roles
Arondite is building the software layer that connects disparate autonomous systems (drones, ground robots, AI-powered sensors from any manufacturer), giving human operators clearer oversight and safer control. Founded by a former Palantir/Helsing veteran and an ex-BAE Systems engineer, the company addresses the interoperability challenge as militaries adopt autonomous hardware from multiple vendors.
They're hiring Software Engineers and Deployed Software Engineers in London.
- Location: London
- Stage: Seed
- Backed by: Index Ventures, Concept Ventures, Creator Fund, 9Yards Capital
- Total raised: £10 million
Delian: 1 open role
Delian builds autonomous systems for NATO and allied forces, including the Lambda Autonomous Surveillance Tower (LAST) which uses video and thermal feeds to detect and track surface targets without GPS, and a pipeline of concealed sea drones. Founded by a former Apple robotics engineer, the company has deployed solar-powered surveillance towers along Greek borders. Headquartered in London with offices in Athens.
Currently hiring a UAV Operations Engineer in London.
- Location: London
- Stage: Series A
- Backed by: Air Street Capital, Marathon Venture Capital, 201 Ventures, HCVC, Nebular
- Total raised: $22 million
Robotics Roles at Other Companies
Several companies outside the robotics sector are hiring for robotics-specific roles in the UK:
- DeepMind: Research Scientist, Robotics (London)
- ARX Robotics: Mission Robotics Software Engineer (London). ARX builds dual-use autonomous ground vehicles and sensors for NATO armies and civilian first responders.
- Aibuild: Senior Robotics Software Engineer (London)
- Graphcore: Research Scientist, Embodied AI & World Models (Cambridge). Research on embodied AI, world models, and multimodal learning for low-power and edge scenarios.
Who's Investing in UK Robotics
Several investors in the Hard Tech UK directory are actively backing robotics and autonomous systems companies:
- IQ Capital (London): ~£1 billion AUM across five funds, investing in AI/automation, computing, and advanced engineering
- DeepTech Labs (Cambridge): Accelerator investing £350,000 per company, with robotics as a core focus area
- Ahren (London): >$800 million AUM, backing AI, robotics, space, and clean energy
- Creator Fund (London): $41 million Fund I, investing in deep tech including robotics and autonomous systems
- Air Street Capital (London): ~$138 million across two funds, backing AI infrastructure, defence, and robotics
- HCVC (Paris/San Francisco): $125 million across two funds, with robotics, hardware, and manufacturing as core focus areas
- Eclipse (Palo Alto): ~$4 billion AUM, investing in manufacturing, defence, robotics, and transportation
The UK Robotics Landscape
The UK's main robotics clusters are concentrated around a few key regions:
- London: the startup hub, home to Wayve, Humanoid, Arondite, and most defence tech offices
- Cambridge: anchored by the university's engineering and physics departments, with CMR Surgical (surgical robotics, $200M raised in 2025), DeepTech Labs, and strong spinout culture
- Bristol: the Bristol Robotics Laboratory (300+ researchers) is the UK's most comprehensive multidisciplinary robotics research centre, and the city is home to Fractile's hardware team and Graphcore's signal integrity work
- Oxford: the Oxford Robotics Institute focuses on autonomous systems for land, sea, and air, and is the academic home of Oxa (formerly Oxbotica, $103M Series D in 2025)
- Edinburgh: the National Robotarium at Heriot-Watt University, in partnership with the University of Edinburgh, focuses on innovation in autonomy, sensors, and enterprise deployments
Despite this activity, the UK's robot density remains relatively low at 101 robots per 10,000 manufacturing workers, ranking 24th globally and below the world average. That gap is part of why the government is investing heavily: there's significant room for adoption growth.
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